page_title: Martin Truex Jr.
section_title: 2016
hierarchical_section_title: Martin Truex Jr. / NASCAR / 2014–2018: Furniture Row Racing / 2016
caption_attribution_description: English: Martin Truex Jr. and Cole Pearn next to their new 2016 Bass Pro Shops Toyota for Furniture Row Racing
context_page_description: Martin Lee Truex Jr. is an American professional stock car racing driver. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. He is the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion and a two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion; having won the title in 2004 and 2005. His younger brother, Ryan, is a champion in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East division, while his cousin Curtis raced for JR Motorsports.
context_section_description: Truex started the 2016 season qualifying 28th for the Daytona 500 and ran up front for most of the day. On the last lap of the Daytona 500, he was positioned behind race leader Matt Kenseth. Heading into turn 3 Denny Hamlin got a big run on Kenseth and tried to pass him but Matt went up to block Hamlin but nearly wrecked in the process and ended up losing the draft leaving Truex as the leading car. After a ferocious race to the finish line Truex losing by 0.010 seconds to Denny Hamlin in the closest Daytona 500 finish in history.
  Truex dominated at Texas, leading 141 of 334 laps but lost after not making a pit stop with less than 39 laps to go. At Kansas in May, Truex won his first pole of the year and first pole in 147 races in Sprint Cup at Kansas for the running of the Go Bowling 400. Truex led a race high 172 laps but a loose wheel relegated him to a 14th-place finish. He won his second pole of the season for the Coca-Cola 600. On May 29—Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, 2016—Truex dominated, leading a record 392 of 400 laps in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, surpassing the old record of 335 laps set by Jim Paschal in 1967. The win was Truex's first of 2016, clinching a place in the Chase for the Sprint Cup at end-of-season. He led the race for 588 miles, the most miles led by any driver in any NASCAR race ever.
  On September 4, in the Bojangles' Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Truex won his second race of the year. With 20 laps to go Truex Jr. was on point with Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson chasing from behind. With 19 laps to go Harvick and Larson found themselves five seconds behind the leader when a caution came out for a hard wreck by the No. 43 machine. With 17 laps to go the field hit pit road for the final time with Truex Jr. winning the battle off pit road. The final restart came with 12 laps to go and immediately Harvick and Larson battled quickly before Harvick eventually took second and then set sail to catch Truex. Luckily For Truex, however, Harvick could not match the number 78 car and Truex would go on to win the Southern 500.
  2016 became his first multi-win season of his career. Truex would advance to the next round of the Chase at Chicagoland. Truex led 32 of the final 50 laps and appeared set to finish second behind Chase Elliott. After a caution with 10 laps left erased Elliott's 3-second lead, Truex and Elliott pitted. Truex used advantage of his fresh tires and got by rookie Ryan Blaney on the final restart, winning the race, his third win of the season. At New Hampshire, Truex had a great car all day and would lead the most laps but towards the end his tires would wear, and a few late race cautions came out so he would lose the lead, eventually, Kevin Harvick would win and Truex would finish 7th.
  The next week, coming back to Dover, Truex would once again have a great car and would lead the most laps, and would get his 4th win of the season and 7th win of his career after the other dominant driver Jimmie Johnson had a pit road mistake and would be advanced into round 2 of the Chase after his Chicagoland win.  He would eventually get eliminated in the Round of 12 after his engine blew up in the elimination race at Talladega and some poor performances in the Round of 12.
caption: Truex's No. 78 Bass Pro Shops Toyota in 2016
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